Finance Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Finance - Case Study Example GE’s first criterion of loan application is that the company applying for loan should have minimum three years’ operational working. The CCL has more than three years’ existence starting from 1987 until the year ending December 31, 2002. Thus, CCL clearly passes the first criterion. Second criterion laid down by GE is of paramount importance as it ascertains whether the applicant would have enough cash generation in his or her business to repay the loan. It is necessary to do a complete analysis related to this aspect. Rendl wants to know about the cash generated from the operations so as to be assured of the loan repayment by CCL. This can be given by net earnings after tax plus depreciation charged ($72,795+$79,132 = $151,927). Depreciation is not a cash outgo and remains with the company and hence counted in the cash generated. CCL’s previous loans have been disbursed for the repayment period of 48 months. Assuming same repayment period of 48 months for the loan of 270,000, CCL will have monthly installment of 270,000/48 = $5,625/month. Thus, in a year CCL would need to pay 5625Ãâ€"12 = $67,500 toward its new loan; however, for its two old loans CCL has been already paying 7000+800 = $7800 per month. Thus, the outgo per annum for these two old loans would be $93,600. Added a new loan repayment, total repayment comes out to be $161,100 per year. Cash likely to be generated in the year ended 2003 (as calculated above) at $151,927 is marginally short of this repayment requirements. While Rendl reviewing CCL application for $270,000 on April 15 2003 for likely new loan disbursement from May 1 2003, the CCL would have reduced debt in the first four months by 7800Ãâ€"4= $31,200 and net long term liability at the time of new loan disbursement would be 225,000(from balance sheet year ended 2002) – 31200 + 227000(new debt) = $420,800.

Financial Performance Analysis Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Financial Performance Analysis - Case Study Example This shows a continuous decline in current ratio in 2006 onwards as compared to that in 2005, which shows that the company is experiencing liquidity crunch; and this may ultimately lead to insolvency of the company. The desired (benchmark) current ratio is 2:1. The current ration of M & S shows that the short term assets of the company are not sufficient to cover the short term liabilities. The Debt ratio of M&S was 4055.2/5210.5 = 78% in 2006 which is lower than 3958.1/4867.3 = 81% in 2005. In addition, the interim statements shows a slight increase in the debt to asset ratio to 4289.6/5410.8 = 79%. Overall, the ratio shows that almost 80% of the total assets of the company are financed through debt. When analyzed with current ratio, this shows that the company might be vulnerable to problems arising due to extra loans and debts, and inability to service debt due to lower levels of current assets. The Debt-Equity ratio of the company has shown a declining trend as it decreases from 3958.1/909.2 = 4.35 in 2005 to 4055.2/1155.3 = 3.51 in 2006. It shows an increase to 4289.6/1121.2 = 3.83 for the half yearly period in 2006. This relatively lower level of D/E ratio is considered to be safer and shows that the company is not heavily indebted. ... The ROA for the period April - September 2006 was 281.3/5410.8 = 5.2%. The decline shows that the company is not doing well in making an effective use of its assets to generate income for 2006 as compared to that in 2005. Total Assets Turnover The asset turnover for the company has been 7797.7/5210.5 = 1.50 in 2006 as compared to 7490.5/4867.3 = 1.54 in 2005 showing a declining trend. It was 3929.4/5410.8 = 0.726 for the half year period in September 2006. The total assets turnover is a critical ratio that measures the efficiency of the organization in using its assets to generate sales. The ratio for M&S is on the lower side showing that assets are not being used efficiently to generate dollar of sales. Management should take a note of this and should take appropriate steps to resolve this issue. Inventory Turnover The inventory turnover (Cost of Sales/Inventory) for the company has been 4812.1/374.3 = 12.86 in 2006 as compared to 4887.6/338.9 = 14.42 in 2005. This shows that on average, inventory has been sold 12.86 times in 2006 as compared to 14.42 times in 2005. The decline might be due to the ineffective inventory management practices, or may also be due to the lack of sales (but the sales have increased in 2006 as compared to 2005). The company should investigate this decline in inventory turnover to appropriately identify and resolve issues. Cost of Goods Sold to Sales & Gross Profit Margin The company did relatively better in reducing the cost of goods sold to sales ratio at 4812.6/7797.7 = 61.72% in 2006 as compared to 4887.6/7490.5 = 65.25% in 2005. This shows that the cost of inputs have been kept to low as compared to the revenue that is being generated from these inputs. This may show efficiencies in production function and indicates that there

Marketing and Pottery Barn Essay Example for Free

Marketing and Pottery Barn Essay 1. If Williams-Sonoma continues with its’ present strategies and objectives, where will it be in 5 years? Given today’s economy, and the bleak economic outlook, I do not believe Williams-Sonoma will continue to exist with its’ current strategies and objectives to serve its’ below target market consumers. Bottom line is many consumers cannot afford the products being sold by the company. Although, the company’s target market is in the 10% of wealthiest consumers, and had total earnings of over 3.5 billion. (2010 shareholders meeting). Other avenues of generating revenue must be explored. I fear that even the 10% will eventually become more cost conscious in the years to come. On the lines of the company improving its’ position in the next five years, I think the company should continue to improve on concepts already in place. An example is the Pottery Barn Teen website. (pbteen.com). Williams-Sonoma had used the concept in moderation starting with WS bridal registry. The idea took flight and as a result, moved the concept to its’ retail operations such as Pottery Barn, resulting in a 500% jump in online sales generating over 1 billion in revenue. (Prophet.com). Still with all these profits and improvements, if WS cannot hold by decreasing its’ prices so that others not in the 10% range can afford their products, the company will fail like the housing market. Over the next five years, the company should consider expanding its’ product line to include bath dà ©cor to complement the already established retail home furnishings. 2. If you were CEO of Williams-Sonoma, what strategies would you recommend? There are so many recommendations. I would first build on the internet base I talked about earlier. If I can improve internet sales over 500% I certainly want to keep that going. I would incorporate interactive websites. Having the ability to talk to, chat with an associate while I’m shopping in my underwear is always helpful. Next I would improve my e-commerce presence by advertising on social media outlets and improve accessibility to shopping by posting web-apps. I would consider lowering price points so I could tap into the more than 10% of consumers without becoming â€Å"Wal-Mart†. Now the company did do something to increase its’ position that I found useful. That was to decrease its’ overall lease space by 2%. (2010 shareholders meeting). This reduction in retail occupancy costs attributed to the 1 billion dollars the company enjoyed last year. I would also consider expanding the company’s customer base by broadening the product line to similar to Home Goods or Bed Bath and beyond who currently double the revenue of Williams-Sonoma. (Redistribute assets earmarked for traditional cataloging to online accesses. Not only will this save money, but will also impact paper usage. I believe advertising in this was has all but outlived its’ usefulness. 3. Describe the competitive strategies used by each of Williams-Sonoma’s competitors. Which of these are most effective? Williams-Sonoma has six major competitors plus one more in their market. The company holds only 7.9% market share (FY10) to main competitor Bed, Bath and Beyond with an astonishing 34.4%. (William-sonoma.com/investors) BBB’s strategy is to offer competitive prices for quality products. Its’ target market is middle to upper middle class and this is the reason it fairs better in the current market. The Bombay Company’s strategy was to increase its’ footprint by increasing outlet store locations so it could offload clearance items and increase sales to the outlet mall customer base. (Homeaccentstoday.com). Crate and Barrel decided to complete a nationwide marketing campaign that targeted catalogs and websites. While Pier 1 Imports, in a bold move consolidated chains, and licensed their name to Sears in Puerto Rico. (turnaround.org). Door to Store decided to convert and market to style-minded customers at low prices capitalizing on web selling and shipping nationwide. (buyfurnitureyoulove.org). Rolling Pin Kitchen Emporium switched most of its locations to upscale malls and targeted marketing thru websites and catalogs. While Restoration Hardware seemed to advertize to its wealthiest customers targeting the top 10%, attempting to expand its base. If I had to choose one of these strategies I would have to go with the one I mentioned first. I am aware that this was not a in the original case study but in researching I found the Bed Bath and Beyond strategy to be most formidable considering the company doubled the revenue of Williams-Sonoma last year. There is a reason why the company commands 35.4% market share in FY 09 while WS was at 7.9%. (Williams-sonoma.com/investors) Williams-Sonoma is only utilizing a portion of marketing power while watching other companies progress thru a tough recession and recover by constant restructuring. 4. How is Williams-Sonoma using the Internet as a distribution channel now, and how would you recommend that they us the Internet in the future? Williams-Sonoma launched a bridal registry as a test bed for furthering the use of the internet. (prophet.net).This shift was so successful it moved the use of the internet to Pottery Barn, and other retail outlets. The result was 500% increase in internet sales and a 1 billion dollar profit. They also used the web to launch PB Teen which focused on the gap in age between Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids. Each website is interactive now but PB Teen was the first with outstanding success. This appealed to dialed in kids wanting something to improve their own piece of sanity, their bedrooms. The interactive site allows the exchange of ideas, instant feedback and the customer has the ability to view products they like. Williams-Sonoma has already completed its’ internet shift. I feel they can rely more on the model by providing 24 hour online support to those consumers that have odd hours. Furthermore I believe the company should limit its’ use of hardcopy catalogs unless specifically requested because this focus had established itself as a business, does nothing for it in the future. Another approach is marketing thru social networking sites. This approach, along with direct marketing does have its’ costs and would show profit after the initial cost blast. If the company wishes to improve its’ position of 7.9% market share, it will need every edge it can possibly have.

Marked women by appearance article

Marked women by appearance article MARKED WOMEN In the Article â€Å"marked women†, Deborah Tannen explains the social way of judging women by their appearance or other factors, but not judging men for the same reasons. Tannen uses her observation during a conference meeting of four women and eight men to analyze how each woman in the meeting was marked while men were not. Again Deborah points out the issue of how one gender writing about the other is either portrayed as prejudiced or sexist. ADD MORE POINTS The author explains that men have the freedom to wear what they want without much meaning being read from their clothes, but for a woman every style has a meaning. In the article Deborah Tannen says â€Å"There is no womans hair style that can be called standard, that says nothing about her† further supporting her point. The author uses the different clothing styles of three ladies in her conference meeting as examples when she tries to attribute them? to their respective personalities. However, she noticed that the men were all dressed alike because they had the freedom to. In my opinion, the authors evaluation is restricted. Tannen did not consider the formal setting of her case study so to say.In such settings, men are often restricted to corporate outfits and a plain haircut just like the ones she observed in her male colleagues in the article (page #) . For instance, it is inappropriate for a man to go job hunting or for an interview in a pair of shorts and plain T shirt , but in a casual place like a bar he has more freedom in his choice of outfits. This example shows that men are only unmarked in certain situations and settings. Further on, Deborah also claims that every womans style has an implied meaning. In paragraph 12 she says â€Å"Each of the women at the conference had to make decisions about hair, clothing, makeup and accessories, and each decision had a carried meaning†. She insinuates that a woman can hardly dress without judgment being passed on her dress. For example, if a woman wears a revealing or tight dress then she is viewed as attention seeking or available. I believe that the Deborah Tannens point here is true because from my experience, a persons appearance is the first criteria for judgment it makes your first impression of the person. I dont completely agree with Deborah attributing this social evaluation to just women since a man can also be judged by how he dresses. His dressing says a lot about his personality, fashion choices, occupation, wealth and even his sexual orientation. You dont need anyone to tell you that a man who dresses in suits everyday works in a firm or some business outfit while the man in overalls and hard hat is a construction worker. Next, the article makes a case about some words in the English language that are marked. Deborah Tannen describes that adding suffixes to some nouns to make them feminine (or about the female gender) seems to infer a sense of a sense of un-seriousness. In Deborahs example adding -ette to the Doctor to form â€Å"Doctorette† shows inferiority to a certain degree . In my opinion the author was myopic in her evaluation. She bases her case on the English language only, in making a general argument about women. Some languages use the same words or completely different words for both genders. in French language â€Å"ilâ€Å" is used for the masculine gender and â€Å"elle† for the feminine gender and â€Å"ils† for plural â€Å"they†. It should be noted that these suffixes are just added to show grammatical differentiation in gender and not for social gender classification. The author cited an expert source Dr. Ralph Fasold in his book, ().†. According to her citation, Dr. Fasold stressed that â€Å"language and culture are particularly unfair in treating women as the marked case because biologically it is the male that is marked† (paragraph 24, line 2). So with respect to this citation, in her opinion men should be the marked ones. This logic seems to be biased and irrelevant to the argument about the women being marked and men unmarked, not which gender should. I believe it was a good citation but for the wrong argument. The article introduces a secondary argument about the societys view of one gender writing about the other. A woman writing about the man is viewed by the society as a prejudiced person. This is true; in my opinion a female writing about a male is sexist. I feel a woman writing about for instance the flaws of the male character is sexist because both genders have flaws and why should only one gender be put to question. In conclusion, I think the author Deborah Tannen had a reasonable argument but her supporting evidence were somewhat biased and they were not strong enough to fully support the arguments. Moreover, she did introduce opposing opinions; she just looked at the argument from a womans point of view. As far as my opinion goes women are judged a little more than men, but that does not mean men are free this societal evaluation.

Kate Chopins Awakening - Edna Pontellier as Master of Her Destiny Essa

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Kate Chopin's The Awakening, the main character, Edna leaves her husband to find place in the world. Edna believes her new sexually independent power will make her master of her own life. But, as Martin points out, she has overestimated her strength and is still hampered by her "limited ability to direct her energy and to master her emotions" (22). Unfortunately, Edna has been educated too much in the traditions of society and not enough in reason and independent survival, admitting to Robert that "we women learn so little of life on the whole" (990). She has internalized society's conception of woman as guided by her emotions and not her mind and, therefore, in the search for another man to fill the void of love in her life, lets her goal become clouded instead of learning to depend on herself alone. Edna wants to overcome gender stereotypes, and is already using behaviours such as assertiveness and independence to question them, but the struggle is new to her and she fails to discover a method that would allow her to successfully leave behind society's preconceptions. Martin writes, Ambition, striving, overcoming odds, the focusing of energy on a goal are habits of mind associated with masculine mastery. A woman who wants to develop these skills has to defy a centuries-old tradition of passive femininity[.] . . . But Edna Pontellier does not have the emotional resources to transcend the conventions that regulate female behavior, conventions that she has, in fact, internalized. (22) Even in her defiant disobedience to her husband, she is subconsciously aware of the futility of her struggle. During a fit of violent frustration with her marriage, "she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon th... ... Giorcelli, Cristina. "Edna's Wisdom: A Transitional and Numinous Merging." Martin 109-39. Martin, Wendy, ed. New Essays on the Awakening. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988. Papke, Mary E. Verging on the Abyss: The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1990. Seyersted, Per. Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1969. Showalter, Elaine. "Tradition and the Female Talent: The Awakening as a Solitary Book." Martin 33-55. Skaggs, Peggy. Kate Chopin. Boston: Twayne, 1985. Stein, Allen F. Women and Autonomy in Kate Chopin's Short Fiction. NY: Peter Lang, 2005. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. Wells, Kim. â€Å"Kate Chopin’s The Awakening: A Critical Reception.† Kate Chopin’s The Awakening: A Critical Reception. N.p., Aug. 1999. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.

Isolation in Bartleby the Scrivener :: Bartleby Scrivener Essays

Isolation in Bartleby the Scrivener "I prefer not to," "I prefer not to," tells the reader about Bartleby isolating himself. The phrase shows his lack of involvement, another form of isolation. The narrator tells the reader exactly what he did to Bartleby, very vividly, as shown below. In the novella, the author tells the reader, down to the smallest detail, what he did to Bartleby to isolate him from the world. He tells us in this passage, "I placed his desk close up to a small side window in that part of the room, a window which originally had afforded a lateral view of certain grimy backyards, and bricks, but which, owning to insubsequent erections, commanded at present, no view at all, though it gave some light. Within three feet of the panes was a wall, and the light came down from far above between two lofty buildings, as from a very small opening in a dome. Still further to satisfactory arrangement, I procured a green folding screen, which might entirely isolate Bartleby from my sight, t hough, not remove him from my voice." The quotation describes how the narrator secludes Bartleby from society. Even his window, usually a form of escape, results in Bartleby being trapped behind another wall, thus reinforcing his total isolation. The irony lies in the fact that the narrator, while trying to isolate Bartleby, becomes affected by it, so much so that he appears almost human. Instead of dismissing him on the spot for refusing to copy, proofread or leave the premises, he tries to find other employment for him, and even considers inviting him to live in his residence as his guest. The narrator develops before our eyes into a caring person, very different from the cold, unsympathetic person at the beginning of the story. "To befriend Bartleby, to humor him in his strange willfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience." The narrator would normally befriend Bartleby or any othe r "sucker," but Bartleby has given him a conscience. The narrator has realized that a common blemish in a person does not determine the person. In the beginning of the novella, the narrator only cared about his work, but now he realizes that people have a life outside of work, except Bartleby.

The Perfect Customer Service Model

After looking over the customer service model I would use what I thought I would want to receive as a customer calling in for help. You have a preconceived notion as to what your customer service call would be like. For instance if I had a customer call I would like to greet them warmly and get right to the point as to what the problem is and what I am prepared to do in order to help them. A customer expects professionalism but they also expect understanding and dedication to their issue, so being very attentive is key.This would be a part of my strategy. As far as the systems I would make sure that the use of the state of the art facility was used as well as up to date equipment and software, being on top of the newest technological trends and software will ensure fast and accurate repairs. Another important aspect of customer service is the representatives taking the calls. It is my duty to the customer to make sure that every individual they speak to has been trained and is qualif ied to help them.I have had experiences where the responses are from a text and often times you get shifted to different people that are qualified in different areas. I think that making sure the persons receiving calls are qualified leads to a better customer service experiment the less run around and hold time the better. The management of the facility as well as other personnel must have a background in the customer service area as well as technology because they support the frontline.